We Are Green
by Lithos Maitreya
Summary: Link has just turned eighteen. A descendant of the Hero's Line, he lives with his parents in Whittleton Village. But everything changes when he goes to Castletown. The Goddesses have spoken; it's time to return to Old Hyrule. Ganon is displeased.
1. Chapter 1: Whittleton

**A/N: Hi there! Some of you might have seen my Zelda oneshot, A Deus ex Harpa (Second Seal Mix), which is part of my DarkeSword's ReMixes Project, but probably not. Yes, that was advertising, but you don't have to read it. This story is not noticeable related to it. What this story **_**is**_**, however, is my first attempt at a non-crossover, full length fanfiction. Will it be good? I think so. The plot isn't totally nailed down just yet, but it will be soon. The concept is complete. The characters are either made or will be made soon as they're needed. Now some thanks:**

**First, to Rose Zemlya. I'm not taking anything directly from her story or anything, but her fanfictions in this archive are what inspired me to get this out. Second, to Commentaholic and the other members of the Brotherhood of the Pen, particularly in the Harry Potter chapter. They've all helped immensely with my writing. And third, to Nintendo, for providing a world for me to play in.**

**I've followed the time-honored Zelda tradition of taking and remixing names from previous games in the newer stories here, as you'll see. Talos, Ilian, Impani, and then of course the directy taken Niko, Alfonzo, Link (duh), and Zelda (see previous parentheses). Also, this story uses my own personal Linearist timelime (in which the timeline didn't split in OoT) and that's displayed a bit in the beginning here, ****although there's more to it. Anyway, it starts in the Spirit Tracks map, but you don't need to have played it or any other game to read the story.**

**I think that's about everything, so enjoy!**

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><p><strong>We Are Green<strong>

_Being a tale of Heroes, love, hatred, and a very old hat._

**Book 1: Destiny Begins Anew**

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><p>Chapter I<p>

Whittleton

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><p>…<em>Long ago, in the land of Hyrule, a boy was born…<em>

…_His father was of the ancient race of the Hylians, and so, too, was his mother…_

…_Yet 'twas in the midst of broiling wartime, and naught but death was given to this family. The father was commander in the armies of the kingdom and right hand to the lord Daphnes himself. Yet when the savage Gerudo came on an offense directly into the midst of the kingdom, the father was killed._

_The mother of the child fled with her son from the metropolis of Castletown to the south, to the Kokiri's Forest, where she hoped to find sanctuary, for 'twas said that the Great Deku Tree, Guardian of the Woods, would offer protection to those who had lost that which they possessed._

_Yet en route she was intercepted by a party of the evil Moblins who were servants to the Gerudo King, and she was mortally wounded. Her life remained long enough to get to the forest, and so she died, begging the Great Deku Tree to protect her son._

_And so it was that the child, Link, lived there for nine years, until he was eleven. By then he had forgotten his parents, and only remembered scraps of that one terrible night. Yet his destiny was not finished. You know this, child. He left the forest, found the three spiritual stones, gained the Master Sword, and – with the aid of the Triforce of Courage – destroyed the Gerudo King, Ganondorf, who bore the Triforce of Power._

_Link, who became known as the Hero of Time, married the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda, and they had two children – one boy, one girl. The girl Zelda raised to be a princess, and the boy Link took and trained to be a warrior._

_The son one day found a girl in the town of Ordon to love, and there he settled down, and his children lived there and his line was grounded while his sister grew to be a fine ruler and kept her line upon the throne for two centuries._

_After so long, the nobility of the Ordonian family was forgotten, and when the family was destroyed by an attack of creatures called Bulblins, none knew what had been lost._

_Yet a child survived. Named Link, whether by fate, coincidence, or out of reverence to an ancestor whose name was only half-remembered, I do not know, he became a child of Ordon, born and bred. But one day everything changed. Suddenly, the Bulblins returned, and kidnapped his friends. And then he too was captured, by nightmare beasts, and in their captivity, transformed into a wolf, he met a girl named Midna._

_Her homeland was the shadowy Twilight Realm, a place which had been made into a prison for the unrepentant of the ancient war in which the Gerudo King was slain. Most of the Gerudo, all the Moblins who could be found, and many rebellious of the Shiekah tribe were sent there. She was a descendant of that evil, yet she herself was unlike her ancestors, though some malice and bitterness remained. All the same, she and Link worked together and saved both Hyrule and her realm, and fell in love while doing so. She, as it turned out, was the betrayed Princess of Twilight, and her throne had been usurped by the traitor Zant, who paid homage to the ancient Gerudo King._

_This ancient evil, whose name was Ganondorf, had used the Triforce of Power to gain some semblance of immortality. He could not be killed, though his body was destroyed, and Link and Midna did it again._

_Midna then left for the Twilight Realm to be queen, but by ancient, untested paths, Link followed her and they married, and he was crowned King of Twilight, yet all now know him as its Hero._

_Two centuries later, back in Hyrule, Ganondorf rose again, and to counteract him, a Hero was chosen from the bloodline of the daughter of the Hero of Time. This Hero was the prince of Hyrule, and, not having the more recent ancestral power of the Hero of Twilight, nor the Triforce of Courage which was passed down that other line, was unable to stop the flood of evil. He died, and the Goddesses intervened directly. They could not kill Ganon as they would like, however, theirs being the strength of Deities, so he was drowned._

_And so was all of Hyrule – buried under the sea. Mountains became islands, and the ancient world hid below._

_Yet 'twas not the end. How is unknown, but the ancient bloodline returned to our realm in the form of a young boy, who, like all the previous heroes, wore green, and he, too, was named Link. Raised on Outset Isle, he joined a marauding ship and became a seaman. A pirate, he called himself, though an honorable one._

_But then his captain, Tetra, was kidnapped by the spirit of Ganondorf, for she, it seemed, was a descendant of the Princess of Destiny, that first Princess Zelda. He went through a great adventure to find and save her, one for his fathers to be proud of, and he eventually succeeded. They fell in love, and, with the blessing of the Goddesses, found a new continent – a New Hyrule – where they settled down and helped to rebuild the old nation there. Here._

_Yet there were natives there. Tetra became friend with one called Anjean, one of the ancient Lokomos, guardians of the Spirit Tracks that were on that continent. Through her, the art of train-building was made known to newcomers._

_Tetra's lover was named Hero of Winds, and their line became New Hyrule's royalty. Yet the Triforce of courage was not given to them after that – it was granted to the line of the Hero of Winds' sister, Aryll._

_A century after the coming of Hyrule's people to their now home, a new Hero was born, grandson of Aryll, and again named Link. He lived with a friend of the Hero of Winds – now an old man – named Niko. He went to New Castletown one day to be named a full, authorized engineer, for that was his trade, by the new princess, whose name, once again, was Zelda. Yet she was attacked that same day by another native of that – this – realm, one of the Demons of Malladus. Link and she together fought him, and then his master, Malladus, and won. He was named the Hero of Spirits, and he fell in love with Zelda._

_And they had two children, and by pact, 'twas agreed that one would be noble, while the other would be kept secret and raised in the south in something resembling poverty._

_That child had a child, and so did he, and the line remained, until the Castle-children forgot their brothers and sisters who lived among the peasants._

_But the other children have not forgotten… have you, Link?_

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><p>I met the eyes of the old man. He'd been a friend of my grandfather, apparently, although sometimes it seemed like <em>everyone <em>was friends with some ancestor or another.

I absently rubbed the back of my left hand. I always did when I thought about my predecessors. That was where the Triforce of Courage sat like a birthmark – and about as useful. My mother, who bore the Active Triforce right now, until she died and it passed to me, said sometimes that she thought the Triforce's magic had faded, which seemed to many a plausible explanation; after, all, the Hero of Spirits had never once, in all his story, used it, and nor had Zelda in that age, though Wisdom was in her line. And, after all, Ganondorf hadn't been their enemy, had he? Many now thought that the Triforce's magic had faded, and thus the Gerudo had lost his eternal life and died quietly long ago.

I snorted. It wasn't like it mattered now, anyway. It _wouldn't _matter unless, by some chance, I or one of my descendants got picked as the next Hero, and frankly, I didn't believe it would happen. I was among those who thought the Triforce had lost its power.

"No," I told the old man, whose name was Alfonzo. "I haven't forgotten."

Like me, Alfonzo was named after an ancestor, his being the guy who'd taught the Hero of Spirits to be an engineer. The man had decided 'to follow his forebears' noble steps,' as he put it, and was a Train Engineer himself; my family's personal one – he drove our train around, and in exchange, we got free rides. Although, now he was getting old, the job was mostly done was his grandson Talos.

"LIIIINK!"

Speak of the devil…

I turned and grinned at my friend, who had just walked in the door. "Hey, Talos."

"What're you doing in here?" the other boy asked. "You've been in here for the past half an hour!"

"Your granddad roped me into another lecture about my ancestors," I said, rolling my eyes. "Again."

"You should respect the past, Link!" said Alfonzo, his voice rising as his well-known 'history fever' took hold of him again. "Those who do not remember the past…"

"…Are condemned to repeat it," finished Talos sarcastically. "I swear, Grandpa, if you say that any more often I won't be able to think anything else!"

The two glared at each other but there was a hint of a smile behind both of their eyes. They both loved each other to death, though Talos would never admit it.

"Oh, go away, and leave an old man in peace," said Alfonzo, and I knew he was about to crack a grin.

Talos smiled widely. "Okay! C'mon, Link! Show me that new bow you got!"

I grinned. "All right!" My eighteenth birthday was yesterday, and for it my mom had gotten me the BEST PRESENT I'D EVER GOTTEN (second to the sword I got four years ago… and the shield the year before that… and the newer, genuine Hylian Shield last year… and okay, so it was just a really nice present…) a bow. But not just any bow – this one had a Hawkeye like the one the Hero of Twilight had had. The thing was _beast_.

Talos and I headed for my house. We all lived in Whittleton, which was just a day's travel by train south of Castletown. It was in the Forest Province – once called the Forest Realm before the kingdom got fully incorporated – and right smack-dab in the center of it to boot. That wasn't to say it was a big place; far from it. It was just a little trading village in the forest, where most of the income came from the trees, a mine to the west, and, of course, trade. There was a saying in Castletown (I'd been told; I'd never been there, although Mom was hinting that she might take me soon) 'never try to outsmart a Whittletonian with money; you'll get a few dollars, walk away pleased, and then find out they cut your purse without breaking a single law.' Too true – we were all deadly with a few Rupees. Never did anything illegal though – Mom'd kill whoever tried.

My mom's name was Ilian. Apparently her namesake was an Ordonian girl who the Hero of Twilight had once crushed on before he'd met Midna. I had no idea why my family though that was a good namesake, but apparently they had.

Whittletonians were big fans of names like that. My dad, for instance, was named Niko after the guy of the same name who'd known both the Hero of Winds and the Hero of Spirits. And every boy of my bloodline was named Link, in the tradition that no Hero could be named anything else, and after all, all the Heroes of Light before now had been boys. I often asked Mom if the Goddesses were sexist, and she always replied with 'probably, but as long as I don't have to be a Hero, I don't mind at all.'

They said that every girl in the Royal family was named Zelda for the same reason. Oddly enough, my generation was the first time the two had coincided since the time of the Hero of Spirits – something lots of people said was a sign. That had died down when I'd turned about five, though, since that was the very latest any Hero had been orphaned, and none of them had had living parents, and my parents were both still quite alive and breathing, thank you very much.

Now only a couple people still thought I was the next Destined Hero, and while it was kind of flattering, I didn't much like the idea. That was one of the many things my mom and I agreed on; who the hell wanted to be a Hero?

Back to the present, though, as soon as I'd stepped into my house, my mom called, "Link, is that you?"

"Yeah, Mom!" I hollered back. By the sound of it, she was in the kitchen on the other side of the house. "Talos is here too!"

"Oh, good, that makes things simpler," my mom said, partly to me, and partly, it seemed, to herself. "Could the two of you come here for a moment?"

We did, going around the central wall-pillar thing that held up my room. My house's rooms on the ground floor were built in a circle, so that they all went around the center, which contained mostly cupboards and a staircase that led to the upstairs rooms – among them my bedroom.

When we reached the kitchen, my mom was making fish and chips. She was best at potatoes and fish when it came to cooking, and since this was a culmination of the two, it went without saying that it was her very best dish. My mouth started watering before I could even smell it, and when I did, I almost groaned in anticipation.

Talos wasn't unaffected either – far from it. My dad was from the beach town of Aboda, but he'd moved to Whittleton as an adult, since the tourism in the beach resort got to him. Still, he could fish; he was one of the only people who could in Whittleton. And my mom had once gone adventuring, and once had helped the chief of the Yeti in Anouki Village in the Snow Province. She'd gotten her hands on some kind of enchanted ice that never melted, so we could preserve fish for a long time.

Combined the two made for one thing – our family was well known for having one of the only tables that was usually stocked with fish. Talos never tasted the stuff except when he was over for dinner.

My mom knew that, and she smirked as she said, "Help yourselves," dishing the fried fish and potatoes onto a porcelain dish and setting it out on the table.

Neither of us wasted any time, and the food was gone in minutes. It wasn't mealtime, but both of us could always make room for Ilian of Whittleton's famous Fish'n'Chips. It was said she'd once made it for the King before vanishing from Castletown, and that he was even now looking for her to have it again, and that he'd never find her.

Anyway, once we were finished, my mom, looking amused, spoke. "You two know that there's a Royal Proclamation going on in Castletown in a week, right?"

"Yep," said Talos. "Thanks for the fish, by the way, Ilian."

"No problem," she grinned, and then continued. "Anyway, I've had a word with your dad, Talos, and he's agreed. You're taking us to Castletown by train in the morning."

"_What?_" Talos spluttered. My eyes widened.

Mom laughed. "You heard me, Talos. We're headed for Castletown tomorrow. We'll stay there for five days– I have a friend who I sent a letter to a while back, and he's agreed to give us a place to stay. We'll leave after the Princess' Proclamation."

Talos blushed, as he always did at any mention of Princess Zelda. It was known to all of us who knew him that he was crushing on her, and had been since he'd gone to Castletown last year to get officially recognized as an Engineer. Since then, he'd been looking for excuses to head up there again. "Er… all right," he mumbled. "Tomorrow morning?"

"Yep," my mom said and winked at him. "And in a week Princess Zelda will be up on that big balcony on the castle, and I promise you'll have a good view."

Talos, of course, blushed even redder. Mom and I just laughed at him. "I expect she still hasn't forgotten you," I told him through my chuckles. "I expect she'll see you in the middle of the Proclamation, break off, and say, 'Oh, look, it's Talos, that handsome engineer from last year!"

Talos glared at me. "Shut up," he mumbled. "Don't make me bring up Impani."

Now it was my turn to blush, while my mom's laughter doubled. Impani was a Whittletonian, like us. She was about two inches shorter that Talos and I – we were the same height – had long, white hair (it was naturally white; no idea why) and she was pretty much the prettiest girl I knew.

She was also absolutely deadly. I'd learned long ago (back when I was thirteen and first started to like her) not to try sparring with her; I wasn't bad with a sword, but she was faster than anyone else I'd ever met. Her favored weapons were twin daggers, and I swear, if the Sheikah survived, she would be a descendant. But the Sheikah had perished in the drowning of Old Hyrule, so she was just naturally beast.

"Okay," I muttered. "Truce?"

"Truce," Talos grinned. "And now you owe me a look at your new bow."

I grinned, all quarrels forgotten, and cheered "You got it!"

The two of us rushed upstairs, with my mom calling after us, "You both have to be back here by dinner if you're going out!"

We weren't.

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><p><strong>AN: Blech. Not the best ending, but I couldn't keep rambling forever. Anyway, what did you think? I'd like to know. I'd also like to receive reviews. Good thing the two coincide, eh? Why not just press the little blue button? I don't mind if you press it and talk to me about the various brands of cheddar cheese, but please, just press the button! I'm begging!**


	2. Chapter 2: On the Tracks

**A/N: Sorry about the wait. I got distracted – plus writer's block gave me crap. I'm better now. This is the earliest action in any story I've ever written, but I also think it's some of the best action I've ever written. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Other note: This story's been changed to 'T' rating because I have decided I'm going to use sparing swearwords. It's a very light 'T', so don't worry. I just feel better for it.**

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><p>Chapter II<p>

On the Tracks

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><p>When my mom said 'in the morning', she meant it.<p>

"Mom, it's not even light out!" I grumbled sleepily as she shook me awake.

"I want to get there before it gets dark," she replied cheerfully. "Come on! Get dressed!"

_How the hell is she this wide awake this early? _ I wondered as she left. Groaning, I got up and mentally went over what she'd just said.

I paused, my tunic half on. _Get where?_

Then I remembered. We were going to Castletown. After that I started changing with a good deal more enthusiasm, and was downstairs in less than two minutes.

Talos was there already, and he looked wrecked, but still excited. "Dad had me up at _four!_" he told me. "Checking on the train! I mean, what were the odds something'd be wrong? Literally less than two percent – and if we're late we don't lose anything anyway! You're lucky."

"Why, what time is it?" I asked him.

"Half past five," he told me. "We leave before six-thirty."

My jaw dropped. "_Half past five?_" I asked Mom incredulously.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Now you know how I feel – getting up at six to make you breakfast every day."

"If I can sleep for another hour," I begged, "I'll make _you _breakfast for three days. Deal?"

"Jerk," Talos muttered. "Look at me, getting up at _four_, of all the Goddess-forsaken times, and all you can think about is getting yourself a bit more sleep."

"My empathy systems only open their eyes about six hours after I wake up," I told him, grinning. "And that's with a good night's sleep…"

"You're the worst friend ever," he muttered.

"See if I let you use my bow again," I replied easily.

Mom called our attention back to her with a sharp (and really loud) whistle. "Link, you don't seem that tired to me–" she began.

"I'm not," I said before she could continue. "But I've got a reputation to keep up, don't I? I'm not called the laziest Whittletonian of all time for nothing, y'know."

She gave me her signature evil eye – and let me tell you, it's scary as hell. "Don't interrupt," she said, and then frowned slightly. "Are you really?" she asked curiously.

"No," Talos grunted. "He made it up."

I glared at him. "Dang it, man!" I muttered. "Why don't I just go to _your _house and tell your dad what happened with that box of chocolates last week?"

"Shut up," my mom said simply, "Or I'll get mad."

We did; no one wanted my mom to get mad – she got _scary_. It supposedly ran in the family; a survival instinct. All of our family went _berserk _when we got really pissed, and I don't mean just crazy. She probably wasn't serious, but I wasn't about to take chances with the current bearer of the Triforce of Courage, even if she was my mom.

She served us breakfast and we ate, still silent. About halfway through the meal, she sighed. "All right, I give," she said glumly. "Start talking. It's uncanny to have the two of you being quiet."

Talos and I high-fived. This was a regular exercise – my mom got annoyed and told us to be quiet – _so we did_. It never failed.

"I knew you'd see the light," I told her with an impish grin. She glowered, but didn't reply.

After we finished eating – it was about six now – Talos led us out to his train. My mom and I got into the passenger car while he got into the engine. "Alright – off we go!" he shouted then. "We'll stop for lunch at about eleven, and we should be at Castletown around dinnertime. Off we go!"

And off we went.

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><p>Throughout the train ride, I was going back and forth between Talos, chatting with him, and Mom, playing cards – usually her personal favorite game, Great War. Basically, the five suits (Hylian decks have five suits) symbolized the five main armies in the Second Hyrulian War – Hylian, Goron, Zora, Gerudo, and Sheikah. I always lost, but I got better each time. She'd been playing all her life, and had once been the national champion of New Hyrule when she was younger.<p>

A little after eleven, just as Talos had said, he stopped the train at a small divergence of the tracks for just that purpose, and we all got off. My mom had packed lunch and it was as good as her cooking always was (which was good). It was just ham sandwiches, but with her added flair, we all enjoyed ourselves immensely, and our stomachs even more so.

"So, let me get the schedule straight," Talos asked her as we ate. "We're staying in Castletown for the next six days, at the end of which is the Princess' Proclamation. The next day, we're leaving back to Whittleton. True?"

"Yep," said my mom. "Unless something changes our plan for us, which may well happen. You know our family – can't stick to a plan to save our lives."

Both Talos and I nodded, laughing. It was true – we were probably the most chaotic family in all the four provinces.

We finished all too soon and got back to the train. "This is why I don't like long trips," Talos grumbled as I hopped on to the engine with him. "I have to focus _all day long_."

"Stop whining," I told him jokingly, trying to lighten his mood in the way the two of us were accustomed to. "Just think – in a week, you'll see your pretty princess again, and we'll make sure you have a good view. And I sure as heck intend to have a good time for the rest of the week, too."

He hit me playfully on the shoulder. "Unlike you," he said, grinning, "I'm not one to go slobbering around after a girl, thanks."

I glared at him, but before I could reply, there was a clatter. A couple pieces of coal dropped down from the storage cart behind us onto the floor by my feet. I grabbed them on reflex – coal was expensive – and tossed them back onto the cart. Talos frowned up at the heap of black stone for a moment, before shrugging and saying, "Weird. Something must've hit them – a pebble the train kicked up or something."

I nodded as he turned back to face the front. Suddenly, on the horizon, a cloud of dust rose up. I frowned at it. "Talos, what's that?" I asked curiously, pointing it out.

He looked, and his eyes widened. "Aw, crap," he muttered. "Bulblins. _Bulblins_. They haven't been seen on the tracks for almost a decade!"

"Well, you have a cannon, right?" I asked him, looking back at the massive artillery gun behind the storage car.

"Well, yes," he said, his voice rising. "But I've never actually had to use it! Like I said, the tracks have been safe for years, and what with one thing and another, I never went to the Gorons' Shooting Range!"

I rolled my eyes. "Stop panicking," I told him, "And give me the gun controls. Tell me how they work. I'll take care of the rest."

He understood in an instant, of course. My family had an innate skill with weapons of all kinds – not surprising, really, considering our heritage. "Here," he said, pointing me to a console with a couple of levers and a big red button in the middle. "Levers spin it, button fires. That's it."

"Got it," I said. "Leave it to me."

It was a hard weapon to use – like anything which you could only see from a third-person perspective, but my eyes, hard-wired as they were for combat, were able to track the probable arc of the cannonball. It took me more tries than I'd have expected, but I knocked down the two Bulblins after a while.

Not before they'd fired a flaming arrow at us, which had missed me by inches and broke the whistle system, of course. That would have been too lucky.

"Dangit!" Talos swore as it hit. "That's gonna cost me a pretty rupee to fix!"

"Hey, at least I got rid of 'em," I said sympathetically, once I'd actually done that. "Could have been a whole lot worse."

"True," muttered my friend, still glaring at the dangling rope as though it was to blame for breaking. Then he sighed. "Whatever. There used to be a slight refund for Bulblin damage. Let's hope it's still up and running."

"How can they tell?" I asked curiously. "What if someone made it look like an arrowshot?"

"Bulblins coat their arrows with a really weird kind of fuel to get them to light," Talos told me, rolling his eyes like it was obvious. "Honestly, you should know that, what with your bloodline."

"Hey, none of my ancestors was ever a scholar," I said defensively. "That was your dear princess' department. With us, it was more just 'dodge the arrows and kill the Bulblin'. We never really cared that much about the intricacies of either."

"That would explain a lot," Talos muttered, smirking.

I glared at him. "Shut up," I said flatly. Suddenly, we both looked to the right side of the train in unison. I'd done it because I'd heard a strange clattering sound, and I could only assume Talos did too.

The cause became plain soon enough. As we looked behind us at the side of the storage car, we suddenly saw a sight I recognized, though I'd never expected to see one with my own eyes, which now widened in shock and horror.

There were two glowing red orbs of light that served as eyes in the otherwise empty sockets. The skull was laced with flecks of torn and tattered skin, older that I could guess at. So was the rest of the skeletal body, which was also wearing ancient, rusty armor.

It was a Stalfos.

As soon as it realized it had been spotted, it clattered its teeth at us and scuttled in our direction. We both leapt back, Talos screaming while my eyes narrowed. This turned out to be the wrong thing to do.

It leapt so that it was standing in front of us, and between us and the doorway to the passenger car. It clattered again. Talos was looking absolutely terrified, but I was suddenly calm, now that the initial shock had faded. This was, after all, exactly what I was here for, wasn't it?

I looked around for something – anything – to use as a weapon. Finally my eyes came upon a length of spare pipe for the trains machinery on Talos' other side.

I spun, coming to a halt in front of him and grabbed the pipe with my hand – my left, of course. The Stalfos was looking straight at me, its teeth bared – not that there was much alternative.

I gripped the pipe like a sword and struck an attack stance. My focus shifted into combat mode. "All right, you old bag of bones," I growled, feeling more alive – more at home – than I ever had before. "Come and get it."

It drew its sword with a grating hiss as the tarnished metal of the sword slid along the rotting cowhide of the scabbard. The blade was a no-nonsense affair – no runes, no glow, no ornate hilt, just a sharp, long bit of metal meant to separate various bits of various things.

I didn't wait for it to lunge. With a yell that (I thought) would have impressed the Hero of Twilight for a first-timer, I leapt forward, swinging my makeshift club around in a crushing arc, aiming straight for the monster's right temple. It ducked and stabbed at my gut. I spun to my right and roundhouse kicked towards its ribs. It hit my leg with its elbow, stopping the movement and causing me to grunt in pain as its jutting bones met my shin.

I pulled back into my attack stance, and so did it. We watched each other for a little while, it giving the occasional clatter while I stayed silent.

Its guard was superb – almost as good as Impani's. My best chance with a weapon like mine was to try to crush either its ribcage or its skull, but it knew that too and was guarding those places especially fervently.

I gritted my teeth. Nothing for it. I charged with a shout, raising the pipe and bringing it sweeping downward. The thing jumped to its right – my left – and prepared to bring its blade down in a strike that would almost certainly have severed my sword-arm, if it had landed.

Time seemed to slow around me, and a lot of things happened at once in that slowed down. I heard Mom's voice shouting something – I didn't catch what – and another woman's voice – a younger one- seemed to scream something else at the same time. An arrow shattered one of the Stalfos' ribs. It screamed.

But all of that didn't stop the blow. What did was what I did in that instant. I slipped my legs out from under me and literally fell on my stomach, catching the Stalfos' legs as I fell. I pulled.

Chattering, it overbalanced and fell… right out of the engine platform and on to the ground below us. Hitting the solid ground while moving sideways at sixty miles per hour was too much for its fragile bones, and it shattered, quickly falling away into the distance behind us.

I lay there for a time panting, stunned by what I had just accomplished, and then I sat up. Looking around I saw that both my mom and Talos were kneeling beside me and my mom was holding a bow in her hands.

"Are you all right?" Talos asked quickly.

I was about to reply when I saw what neither of them had. There was someone in the coal on the storage truck. Their – or rather her – face and hair were blackened by the coal, and she was staring at me, her usual impassive mask gone, replaced by a blended look of worry and amazement.

My face warmed slightly, but the combat rush was still in me and I didn't care. Nor did I pay attention to the hot feeling in my stomach.

"What the hell?" I bawled instead. "Impani?"

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><p><strong>AN: Okay, honestly, who guessed that was coming before it happened? Anyway, next chapter, we meet one of my personal favorites among my OCs – Impani. Now, A little hint to the story's future – there will be MAJOR references to the Hyrule: Total War mod for Medival II: Total War – both in plot and characters. Check it out!**

**And I leave you with freaking babies doing… wait, that's Tobuscus' line. Sorry Toby! I leave you instead with a request to review! Lithos out!**


	3. Chapter 3: Impani

**A/N: Again, I'm really sorry. This story isn't really a priority for me right now – it's third place out of five. But I will try not to let this happen again. Fair enough? Anyway, I hope this compensates at least somewhat for the LONG wait.**

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><p>Chapter III<p>

Impani

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><p>All of us but Talos had moved into the passenger car – including our stowaway – and were sitting around a table. My mother sat on one side, while Impani sat next to me. I wasn't so much sitting as slumping, if that's possible to do without also sitting down. Now that the fight with the Stalfos was over, the adrenaline rush had faded and I was more tired than I'd ever been before. Wiping the floor with a legendary monster that hadn't been seen in over a century took a lot out of a guy.<p>

Now that Impani had been caught she'd consented to come quietly into the passenger car. Well, she'd acted like she was 'consenting to come quietly'. Frankly, I thought she must be at least a little glad of the opportunity. I know _I _couldn't have stayed still in a freight car full of coal for seven hours without wanting to get into the same train's passenger car at least a little.

Okay, I'll admit, I probably couldn't have stayed in the freight car at all. What can I say – patience isn't my strongest virtue! …Correction, it's a virtue I don't have at all.

Back on topic, though, we hadn't spoken until now. But at this point we'd gotten settled in the seats, so my mom began her inevitable interrogation.

"Hello, Impani," she said. "I'll get straight to the point. Why are you here?"

"Because I want to go to Castletown," Impani replied instantly.

"And why, pray tell, couldn't you have just asked to come along?" My mom asked. I wondered at the order of her questions – I'd have asked why she wanted to be in Castletown. Did mom know something about Impani, I wondered, that made her almost know the answers to these questions before she even asked them?

"Because I didn't want you to feel responsible for me," said Impani. I frowned – that didn't make sense. "I have my own agenda in the city," she elaborated, "And I don't intend to stick with your group in whatever it is you're going to do."

I winced slightly. Now _that_ was a rejection if I'd ever received one. My mom was giving Impani a look, as though she were trying to figure whether or not she could trust the girl. It was odd – she seemed suddenly to remind me of all the old legends of the Heroes. Her face looked as though it could fit right in to one of them, with that expression on it.

"All right," she finally said. "I think I can guess where you're going to be, _Impa_ni, and it's not my place to stop you. You won't welcome us there either, unless I'm much mistaken. Fine. We'll drop you off at the station, and you can head to whatever accommodations you've got."

"You'll hang out with us at least some of the time though, right?" I put in quickly, "Since you're here and we know about it and everything."

"If you have the opportunity," my mom said, glaring at me, "You _are _welcome with us at any time."

"Well…" said Impani, looking slightly sheepish, "I don't technically have a place to stay tonight. I was going to just find somewhere to stay and start up my business in the morning. After that, I'll probably have a room in the-" she stopped suddenly. "A room provided for me. But tonight in particular would it be possible for me to stay with you?"

"Oh, most certainly," said my mother with a smile – and now she looked like my mother again, rather than my guardian, for the first time since that Stalfos had appeared. "There'll be room, I'm sure."

"Glad to have you on board, Imp!" I cried, using the nickname Talos and I had given her long ago and clapping her on the back. "Hope whatever business you have goes well!"

"I'm confident that it will," she said, with the half-grin she often wore on her face as she looked at me. "But thanks." Then she suddenly sucker-punched me. Hard. "And don't call me Imp."

I grinned, rubbing my shoulder, but my mom stopped me from responding – probably a good thing – by saying, "Now, Link, are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine," I said, but just as I spoke all my exhaustion returned with a vengeance. I slumped even further. "Just tired…"

"Of course you're tired," said Mom, reaching across the table and ruffling my hair. "Not many people could have taken out that Stalfos alone at all, and only a trained and battle-hardened soldier would have been able to without being just as tired as you are now. You did great."

I grinned weakly. "Thanks, Mom" Then I frowned. "Have you ever seen a Stalfos before this?" I asked, wondering. My mom seemed to have lived many of the old legends that weren't even supposed to exist, and she seemed to know a lot about the difficulty of killing the undead creatures.

"Once," she said quietly. "Only once. And I don't want another repeat if I can avoid it."

"What happened?" Impani asked curiously.

My mom looked at her sharply. "You have your secrets, _Impa_ni, and I have mine. Let them stay that way."

Impani lowered her head, looking abashed, and didn't reply. I frowned. Something was up between those two.

Just at that moment, Talos yelled at us from the engine. "Castletown in sight! We'll be stopping at the station in ten minutes!"

"Thanks, Talos!" my mom called back. Then she looked at me. "Try to stay awake, okay, Link? Sarian's house is only a couple blocks from the station."

I nodded slowly, trying to force my eyes to stay open. "I'll try."

"Thanks," she said with a wry grin. "And I'm sorry to have to ask you to stay up."

"Don' worry about it," I muttered with a yawn. I seemed to be getting steadily more tired by the instant.

"Impani, stay here and talk to him while I go and get everything ready to go," my mother ordered."And don't worry if he… starts acting a little odd." And then I think she left, although after this point things got a bit hazy.

Those ten minutes, I remember, seemed to be the longest ten of my life – although now I can't remember almost any details. I kind of wish I did, since I really don't know what kind of gibberish my loose lips were spewing at Impani. I do recall, at one point, a little bit of a conversation along the lines of this.

"It's blue," I mumbled.

"What is, Link?" she asked in that soft, slightly worried tone that I think she'd been using for about the last five minutes. I must have sounded delirious. Hell, I _was _delirious.

"The color," I informed her. "It's blue."

"What color, Link?" she asked me.

"The color!" I cried, probably sounding like I was drunk. "The _color_, Impa! 'S blue!"

"Okay," she said soothingly, holding my shoulder, trying to calm me down. "Okay. It's blue. All right."

"You dunno what I'm talkin' 'bout, do you, Impa?" I slurred. "It's 'cause you forgot. I didn' forget. I remember."

And then I think I went a little schizophrenic, 'cause I can't remember what she said for a while. "Wha' do I remember?" I wondered to myself.

"Everything, stupid!" I said. "And 's golden."

"Thought it was blue."

"Nah. 'S golden."

"No, no, _no_! 'S blue! T'other thing's golden!"

"Wha' other thing?"

"The thing, stupid!"

"Wha' thing?

"You don' remember either,"

"Course I don'. Wasn' born yet."

"Y'mean he."

"Nah. He's sleepin'."

And I _was_ sleeping. I only learned about the ending of that strange conversation later, through Impani.

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><p>Next thing I knew, it was morning. I was in a green room. The bed I was on had green covers pulled up over me. There was a forest-green pillow under my head. The wooden walls were painted a dark swamp-green. The end table beside my head was a bright lime-green. The dresser by the wall was also green – this time in yet another shade, a sort of pale minty color.<p>

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and sat up, yawning. I just sat there for a moment, collecting myself, and then I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. I stumbled over to the dresser, rubbing my eyes, and opened it.

There were my clothes. Someone must have unpacked for me. And there was the formal tunic, too. One was made for each passing member of the family. 'Formal' was a bit of a misnomer. It was plain and green. There were white leggings and an undershirt that went with it, as some leather fingerless gloves and boots. I didn't usually like wearing it, but suddenly I felt an urge to. This was Castletown – the city of kings. This was the place for which my family existed.

But I couldn't. People would figure out my ancestry, and that was the last thing I needed. There was a reason the family had gone into the shadows, after all – if the royal family, or anyone in Castletown, knew about us, then the royalty wouldn't be the first target anymore. Our only safety was in secrecy. That was why there was only one family in the world besides ours that knew our heritage – Talos'.

I sighed and put on instead a pair of loose brown trousers and a loose green shirt – I had to indulge myself a little. When I was dressed I opened the door and stepped out, with every intention of going to find something to eat.

I found myself in a hallway that had just as much colorful variation as my bedroom – which is to say, next to none. The person who owned this house must really like green. Like, _really_.

Who had my mom said we were staying with? A friend of hers, right? What was her name… Sara? No, but that was close, I was sure. _Sarian_! That was it. It should be easy to remember for someone who'd studied the story of the Hero of Time as studiously as I had – it was a clear reference to the Sage of Forest, Saria the Kokiri.

All this I thought as I walked aimlessly down the hall in one direction with no real idea of where whatever room I was supposed to eat in was. But for the love of Farore, I was hungry. I'm usually not hungry that soon after I wake up, but I was then. I figured it was probably a side effect of killing a creature of legend. Or maybe a vitamin deficiency.

…That last thing, that was sarcastic. Just in case you didn't pick up on that.

I did eventually find a room with a table in it. I also found a room with food in it. Better still, the two happened to occupy the same little corner of space. Even more fortunate, Impani, Talos, my mom, and a woman a little younger than her in a green dress were all sitting around the aforementioned table, eating the aforementioned food. Although I mourned the loss of the latter, I was pleased at the opportunity to talk with them, and hopefully find out just how bad my delirium had been the night before and maybe even what had caused it.

I pulled up a chair and grabbed a plate. "I hope I'm invited to this little breakfast party?" I asked sardonically, looking around at them all.

"Lunch, actually," said Talos, grinning. "From what Impani's told us, you definitely needed a bit of sleep."

It _was _lunch. Instead of sausage and scrambled eggs, the plated were piled high with lunch foods – most of them vegetables, for whatever reason. Lucky for me, I liked vegetables. Unlucky for Talos, he didn't. He seemed to have barely touched his food, and just pushed the greens about on his porcelain platter.

I winced. "How bad was I?"

"Bad," murmured Impani. "I thought you were ill. You were everything from delirious to schizophrenic to Ganonically homicidal."

I cringed. "Ouch. Any idea what caused it?"

"Don't worry about it," said my mom. "It happened to me the first time I took out one of the ancient monsters. All of our bloodline that ever face one of them go through it. We sort of… connect with the past. I don't know any more about it than you do."

I blinked sharply, glancing at Impani for a moment before looking away. Imapni was sharp, though, and spotted it. "She hasn't told me a thing," she told me bitterly. "Not a Nayru-blessed thing. She's been talking about it – whatever it is – in front of me to Talos and Lady Sarian, and doesn't seem to care that I don't understand a thing about what she's saying!" By the end she was glaring daggers at Mom.

"Don't try to guilt trip me," said my mother placidly. "And of all things, don't try to manipulate Link to get me to tell you. After all, why should you know his secrets when he doesn't know yours?"

Impani muttered something unintelligible and went back to her food. "Now, Link," my mother said before I could comment on this exchange. "You're the only one who hasn't been introduced yet. This is Lady Sarian, a very old friend of mine. Sarian, this is my son, Link."

"Charmed," Sarian said, smiling at me, and extending a hand. I shook it across the table.

"_Lady_ Sarian?" I asked my mom, trying not to sound too confused in case I was right in my guess as to the reasons for the title. From all I'd heard, it didn't pay to sound like a country bumpkin aroung the Hylian Nobility, and though I could probably trust a friend of my mother's, one couldn't be too careful.

"Oh, yes," nodded Sarian, answering for her. "You wouldn't know. My full name's Sarian Ocria, and I'm – no arrogance intended – of one of the more… affluent houses of the Forest Province."

_Figures,_ I thought.

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><p><strong>AN: I thought that seemed like a good, Linkish ending. Liked this chapter? Want more? Just click the button below this text and tell me so for more! It's free and takes next to no time! So please, review!**


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